TENCHO  Moran & Uhl, 2005 (engl./ fr.)

Series Spicatae

Type : MacDougall B-266, collected at Catemaco, just east of San Andres Tuxtla, Veracruz, on tree of Pachira aquatica, Dec. 1965.

Etymology : Vernacular name for an epiphytically growing plant.

Distribution : Mexico (Veracruz, Oaxaca). 

First Description by Moran & Uhl in Haseltonia 11: 140-143. 2005 :

Plant shrubby.

Caudex branching, to 50 cm tall or more, 8 – 15 mm thick, pale green and glaucous above, darker below, leaf scars lenticular, 5 - 6 mm wide, ca 0.5 - 1 mm high.

Rosette terminal, rather diffuse, 7 – 12 cm wide.

Leaves 12 – 25, oblanceolate, broadly acute and submucronate, 5 – 6.5 cm long, 15 – 22 mm wide above, 6 mm wide at base, 3 – 4 mm thick, at first ventrally channeled but later flattish, somewhat glaucous when young, later green or becoming reddish.

Floral stems 1 – 3, originating from among rosette leaves but below rosette by anthesis, to 50 cm tall, 6 mm thick, leafless along basal 3 cm, with 15 – 50 leaves above, stem leaves ascending at base but outcurved, elliptic to oblanceolate, broadly acute, spurred, the largest 2.5 – 4 cm long, 11 – 17 mm wide, 2.5 - 3 mm thick, green, glaucous.

Racemes 7 – 20 cm long, 3.5 - 4 cm wide at anthesis, with 25 – 40 flowers, the internodes ca 5 mm long, rarely with a 2-flowered branch; bracts linear-lanceolate, acuminate, spurred, often withering before anthesis, green, 11 - 15 mm long and 2 - 4 mm wide, slightly glaucous, tips of bracts and sepals (and especially young bracts at apex) slightly coloured, pedicels 2 – 3 mm long, ca 1 - 1.5 mm thick, bracteoles much smaller than bracts, ca 3 - 5 mm long.

Calyx disc 4 - 5 mm wide, light green, slightly glaucous,sepals widely spreading but slightly ascending, unequal, triangular-lanceolate, acuminate, 6 – 12 mm long, 2 – 4 mm wide, corolla pentagonal in bud, 13 – 15 mm long, 6 – 7 mm thick at base, 9 – 11 mm thick above, light yellow somewhat tinged with rose on apical half, the tube 1.5 mm long, petals slightly divergent, not in contact in upper two-thirds, straight, triangular-lanceolate, narrowly acute, apiculate, 3.5 mm wide, less than 1 mm thick, obtusely keeled, shallowly channeled ventrally, slightly cupped at base but scarcely excavate; filaments ca 7 mm long from corolla base, 0.8 - 0.9 mm thick, the epipetalous adnate for ca 3 mm, the antesepalous adnate for ca 2 mm, extending higher, pale yellow; anthers oblong, light yellow, 2.5 - 3 mm long, 1 mm wide; nectaries yellow, 1.4 mm wide, 0.5 mm thickk; gynoecium 7 - 8 mm high, 4 - 4.5 mm thick, pistils erect but slightly separated, connate for ca 1 mm, ovaries white, tapering gradually into indefinte styles; styles tinged with red; ovules ca 170, ca 0.55 - 0. 65 mm long; young follicles still erect but later well-separated, ca 10 mm long, thicker below, immature seed 0.6 - 0.9 mm long, 0.3 mm thick, papillose.

Cytology : n = 51, n = 51 +1.

Link to a summary of the above description in French.